As part of our Midlands on the Move features, we speak to Carl Staples, a Midlands storyboarder and filmmaker with a wide range of regional experience who went on to be involved in the Oscar-winning short film The Silent Child. Find out more about Carl's work...

Our resident local film critic @_jacob.holmes headed off beyond the region's boundaries to the BFI London Film Festival. In our latest Midlands on the Move feature, Jacob shares some helpful hints for first timers, as he provides a guide for local filmmakers and film fans as to what to expect when visiting events further afield... In 2025 I had the honour of attending the 69 th BFI London Film Festival for a week, I attending premieres for some of my most anticipated films of the year. And even grabbed a press pass too. This wasn’t my first film festival, but this was my first London Film Fest and to be brutally honest, in the build-up, I was nervous! Sadly, I found the BFI and Accreditation websites not very intuitive and quite confusing. So this this article hopes to give some peace of mind and let people know what they can expect when attending such UK festivals - both as a regular guest and as press. Tickets Getting regular tickets can be stressful, akin to a big concert. And in a way it's like the Hunger Games, a survival of the fittest type of vibe. First off, BFI advertise tickets go on sale at 10am in September, which is true but not wholly accurate. Instead, at 9am you head to the website and get put in a waiting room with a random allocated number for when the actual sale start at 10am. At that time it tells you where you are in the queue. If you get lucky, you could wait 15 minutes, but often the wait can be an hour plus. Finally when you can make a purchase, you are let in and can put all tickets into your basket. I have two years of experience with this queue! The first time, I failed completely and all movies I wanted to see were sold out. But this year I had a plan! The key to success is knowledge to how to play the game. Tip 1: For the best possible chances, subscribe to the BFI and become a member. The year membership was £35 at its cheapest. And if you're in the Midlands like I am, outside the festival a membership can be fairly useless unless you go to London often. But what this membership gives you is important. A week before general release there is a presale for BFI members. Not only is this a benefit, it also gives you a crucial second chance. By that I mean if things don't go your way the first time, you can try again in the general sale. And I had to do exactly this. When general admissions came out, I tried again for tickets for Wake Up Dead Man and got my ticket! Tip 2: Quantity. There's nothing against the rules saying you can’t enter the queue on multiple devices! I was placed very low down in the queue in my first year on one laptop, but this year I used my phone, PC, laptop, my friend's laptops AND my friends' devices! But it all paid off. Devices can take 2 hours or only 30 minutes. More Devices = Higher chance of getting tickets. Tip 3: Know the films you want to see beforehand. If you don’t know what films you want to see or when they screen you will be completely lost. Write a timetable - and furthermore, have back up plans. Sometimes you'll click on what you want and it will be sold out, but having a backup plan will be much easier overall. Tip 4: Even if you don’t get tickets, it's not the end of the world. There are plenty of second-hand ticket websites selling tickets at normal (or sometimes cheaper) prices. Websites like Twickets, social media accounts like @LFFstubs on X or the r/londonfilmfestival on Reddit will have second-hand tickets. In fact, I sold one of my tickets on Twickets and had no complaints either. Press passes As you can imagine, this process is very different for industry passes. The biggest issue is tickets go on sale in waves each day. Instead of one go, pass holders book their tickets day by day. Tickets go on sale at 8am two days before, usually taking place on the accreditation app or website. In some ways this is easier, but it's also a gigantic pain. Although it's MUCH easier to get a ticket, do have to wake up every single day to go onto a laggy website and book a few tickets. You may even have to book tickets in the cinema. Another issue can be if you plan to see both general and press screenings. One you book way in advance, but press screenings are booked during the fest. Ticket prices for public screenings vary, but the gala/premiere screenings are usually £30-£40. Whilst the press screenings are completely free, you just have to pay for the pass itself which is around £55.

Continuing the cinema’s excellent reputation for themed events – such as Paracinema and the folk horror day Darkness in the Fields – the Derby Quad put together a programme of local and international found footage films.

Every season the nominations and eventual winners of the Midlands Movies Awards are chosen by an experienced jury made up of a wide-range of industry experts. Find out more about the 2026 panel...

In one of the most unique venues I’ve ever seen a film in – the cave under The Whistle and Flute in Nottingham – thirty people came together to see a Halloween screening of one of the most controversial television plays ever screened.

I’ve always been a big fan of screening films in unique and unusual places. With streaming platforms competing with post-Covid cinema going, the war for viewers has never been hotter. For better or worse, at the click of a button you can sit on the sofa and scroll thousands of movies without so much as standing up.

As part of our new Midlands on the Move features, we've spoken to local filmmaker Emmeline Hartley about upcoming film Closedown. Read our continuing conversation as Midlands Movies finds out about Leicester actress Parminder Nagra's involvement & more.

Developed as part of the anthology, Serial, Royston Vale Road is a slight, comedy-heavy, found footage short directed by Chris Annable, co-owner of the Straight to Video movie memorabilia and tape store in Alfreton.

Dead on Distribution tries to tackle a lot in its brief 17-minute runtime. Taking place just as the VHS market was starting to boom, flooding shelves with low budget horrors, the film satirises the prevailing thoughts of the time.

Kicking off Derby Quad’s POV: The Found Footage Project was a short film from David Gregory, who’s directed a variety of projects including music videos for the metal band Svalbard.

Benoit Blanc returns for a 3rd murder mystery, but this time it’s an impossible crime. After Monsignor Wicks gains a cult like following in a small town, he is murdered in a sealed concrete box. He has been murdered by one of the members in the congregation, but how can he be killed if everyone is outside the box?

Following off the back of surprise horror hit X and its even more surprising prequel follow up Pearl, director Ti West finishes his trilogy with an 80s-inspired slasher flick with Mia Goth returning as Maxine Minx.

It’s increasingly rare a horror franchise springs up in this day and age that isn’t a reboot or based on an existing and well-known property. But Ti West not only delivered a great film in his 70s-tinged fright flick X, he secretly shot his own prequel back-to-back whilst making it.